


Once Upon a Time

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-12-18
Updated: 2003-12-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 09:10:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1643276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Youth and Beauty are all that matter to a fairytale Queen</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once Upon a Time

**Author's Note:**

> Written for sarah h.

 

 

Once upon a time she had been beautiful, so beautiful men had fought over her hand and sonnets had been written in her praise but now she was older and her beauty had faded. Child birth had wrecked her once proud body and time had drawn its cold, clear lines across her face and around her eyes; her once golden hair was turning white. She had aged attractively and with a grace expected of the queen but she had not aged beautifully and that vexed her greatly. 

And now `she'! That girl had come into her home and taken all with a smile and gentle wave. She was still beautiful, the birth of twins had done nothing but cause her to plump delightfully in places pleasing to the eye. She had slept so long age was kept from her, and though older than the queen by sixty-six years she looked no more than sixteen. 

The queen was infuriated and greatly intimidated by what she saw in the princess, the girl who had slept for a hundred years. 

So she plotted and schemed and dreamed up ways to rid herself of the usurper in her life; she had not minded so much her son`s first wife who had been mousy and quiet, prepared to take all orders the queen had given her and never speaking back.' She had died suddenly whilst bearing a sickly child that followed soon after her 

And her son, the prince, was free from marriage; and didn't the nation know it! Not a day went by without another new face at court, some pretty but mindless girl to parade in front of the prince while he took his pleasures in servant girls and penny whores. But then he brought home a girl one day full faced and fair haired with children whom no-one could dispute to be the princes' and so the monarchy was secured with his bastards and he married the girl in a lavish ceremony that invited half the kingdom and those surrounding to come and revel in the joys of the prince and his new princess. 

And it seemed that only the queen saw through the images of happiness and joy to the horrors this new woman could bestow upon the kingdom and she took it upon herself to save her kingdom. It had not taken long to convince the council who where always wary of new blood; especially blood that had been under an enchantment for so long and they had signed the treaty proclaiming the new princess a witch while the prince was away on a hunting party. 

The princess had been called for and had come; standing with quiet pride before the council and the queen and whenever questioned proclaimed only her love for the prince and her pledge to the country but that had not been enough to sway the council's vote and they had sentenced her to death for treason. 

And the Queen had made sure it was to be the worst death; to be thrown, while still alive, into a coffin filled of snakes and buried at a cross-road so she could not rise and seek torment of those who'd signed her death warrant. And it vexed the Queen most that when her sentence was read out the princess did not cry; and the Queen had wanted nothing more than anything to see the beauty marred and ruined by blotched red tears. 

*/*  
The Princess sat at the window seat of the tower-room that served to be her prison and below she watched nameless and faceless servants preparing her grave. 

The door opened and shut briskly. The princess did not bother to turn round and see who it was who had entered her room; she already knew who would be there, the same person who had come to her room every day since she had been proclaimed a witch. 

"Your majesty," the princess said softly, not looking at the woman she addressed. 

"Come, stand my dear," the queen said gleefully. "It is time, you must know." The princess stood, her golden robes pulling around her feet as she did and faced the queen who looked her over with a critical and angry eye. 

"I do know madam; I have been watching the proceedings." 

The queen smiled at this for she liked to think that things such as that would scare and frighten the princess but when one has slept with no waking, being trapped in nightmares for hundreds of years you could no longer be scared by anything the mortal world could and would throw at you. "Madam," the princess hastened. "I would not like to go to my death and ruin one of your gowns, am I permitted to remove it?" 

The queen again cast a look over her and nodded when she saw the fine gold stitching and mink sleeves. The princess reached for the back of her dress to pull away the corset holding it to her body but found her fingers caught and looked towards the queen for help which, with a suffering sigh, the queen gave. 

The bodice of the dress gave way with ease under the queen's long practiced fingers and dropped to the floor, leaving the princess standing in her under-garments that left little to the imagination. The queen's eyes lingered upon the pale shoulder blades with the spun gold hair that fell in waves down her white petticoat covered back. The queen placed her hands upon the princess's shoulder's feeling the soft suppleness of the moon white skin. 

The princess inclined her head backward, looking up at the queen with questioning eyes and half open lips, illuminated like a dream in the sunlight from the window. The queen kissed her and the princess welcomed it, wrapping her arms around the queen's neck and leaning into the kiss as the queen's hand sought under the layers of petticoats for the warm, wetness that had the princess gasping in her arms. "Witch," the queen muttered, as she reclaimed the princess's lips and her youthful beauty in one sudden, languid movement. 

*/*  
The Prince pointed his sword level at his mother's heart and recoiled only slightly when she laughed. "I gave you life!" the queen said, her voice dangerously low and the prince shook under the sound. "Mother," he whispered, but the queen was already backing away from him towards the grave. 

"And then you ruined mine" she yelled with a fury borne of years and hurled herself backwards, her cry following her even after her body had been obscured by the writhing and twisting forms of the snakes. But as she fell the queen caught the princess's eye, and she smiled. 

 


End file.
